The Superstars We've Met

During the past 38 years, the correspondents of 60 Minutes have met newsmakers from all over the world, including the top names in entertainment.

Now, the correspondents look back at the more memorable interviews and performances from recent years with these "superstars," including U2, Sheryl Crow, Sting, George Clooney, Hilary Swank and others.

Bono, their lead singer has been out front in a campaign to erase Third World debt and to supply Africa with AIDS drugs. He meets with presidents and prime ministers and has graced the cover of Time magazine as a "Person of the Year."

As Ed Bradley found out last summer, Bono and his band are superstars because of their political activism but they are superstars first of all because they can just flat out rock.

"It's only rock 'n' roll, where people are burned out at 40," Bono tells Bradley. "I want to see what can happen with a band if they keep their integrity, keep their commitment to each other and can we create extraordinary music, you know.

"What would have happened — and I'm not making a comparison, because I don't feel worthy to touch their hem — but what would have happened if the Beatles lived and didn't, you know, disappear up their own arses but actually stayed in contact with the world, were awake, didn't let their money buy them off, you know? I'm still hungry. I still want a lot out of the music."

Speaking of people who rock, Steve Kroft says that of all the stories he has covered in the past 17 years at 60 Minutes, his profile of Sheryl Crow was the only one that got his wife jealous.

If he had to choose between spending a couple of days on the road with Sheryl Crow or someone like Henry Kissinger, who would he pick? "C'mon, you have gotta have fun," says Kroft. And, besides, Sheryl Crow is much more versatile: a singer, songwriter, performer, and producer, who also happens to be bright, beautiful and talented.

Believe it or not, a burger commercial helped pave this former elementary school teacher's road to stardom.

"It wound up going network," she recalls. "It lasted for about a year, and I made about $40,000. And I was making about $17,000 teaching for a year, and that was 45 minutes of work. I thought, wow, this is amazing. Maybe I can do it in L.A."

You can accuse Bob Simon of bias, but he says he likes guys in their 50s and 60s who still appeal to people in their 20s. And that's certainly one reason why he likes Sting. When he hung out with him two years ago, Simon says he found him thoughtful, very political, an avid reader and a lover of Mozart. But even with all that baggage, he still makes youngsters scream.

"I'm in my prime," Sting tells Simon. "I feel very natural in my own skin. I'm not pretending that I'm 24. I feel dignified in what I do, and I intend to stay that way."

When the Academy Award nominations were announced last week, there were, as usual, a few surprises, including a number for George Clooney. He's nominated for best director for his film, "Good Night and Good Luck," which received six nominations. Clooney made Oscar history by also being nominated for his acting in another film, "Syriana." No one's ever done that before.

It's quite an achievement for Clooney, who is already successful and handsome, smart and funny. And when Dan Rather met him three years ago it seemed he could charm just about anyone. Well, almost.

You might be surprised that, often, at the foot of Clooney's bed, a sleeping 200-pound pig named Max could be found. And he admitted Max didn't help a lot with the ladies. "It's not good. It's not. But you know, he's my longest relationship," the star jokes.

In the eccentric, egocentric world of Hollywood, Mike Wallace says Hilary Swank is an unusual movie star. She was a surprise Oscar winner six years ago for her performance in "Boys Don't Cry", and a winner again last year for her portrayal of a neophyte female boxer in Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby."

Wallace says she's unlike any other movie star he has known. Beautiful, but somehow short on glamour; down to earth; she's intelligent, articulate, yet she's a high school dropout; sophisticated, worldly, but she grew up in a trailer park. We found her fascinating.

Swank, who lives in New York City, says she rides the subway. The star says the ride on public transit actually helps her with her craft of acting and portraying people.

"And I think once you lose touch with people, what do you play? So I'm here, and it's the best people watching in the world," she tells Wallace.

One of the qualities often found in stars is passion, and correspondent Morley Safer says he can't think of anyone he has ever met who is more passionate about his work — or life itself — than Michael Tilson Thomas. The conductor of the San Francisco Symphony, now 61, has carried music with him since childhood, almost as an infectious disease. And he spreads his art wherever he goes.

Remembering a conversation with his grandmother, famed Yiddish theater star Bessie Thomashefsky, who was also his theatrical muse, Thomas says: "She said to me, 'No one ever said I gave anything less than an impassioned performance. And there's no such thing as an impassioned performance without a little raw material.' "

The hardest work in entertainment that Scott Pelley says he has ever seen is in opera. And the hardest working star on that stage is 65 years old. When Pelley met him in 2003, he thought no one could match overpowering might of Placido Domingo. The term superstar was invented for guys like this.

To ensure that there will be a new generation of stars, Domingo holds an annual talent competition called "Operalia." About 1,000 singers apply, but only 10 are chosen.

"One of the great passions and great love that I have in music is the continuation, is to be able to give to the young artists, to the young singers, what I have been able to get," he explains.

Meanwhile, another genre of performance is the circus, and it ain't what it used to be, ever since a troupe of Canadian jugglers created Cirque de Soleil, with shows that are ever more magical, exotic, sophisticated and daring.

While Cirque has touring companies, Lesley Stahl reports its biggest productions are in the land of glitz: Las Vegas, where it's not only changed the city's economy but has also become its biggest superstar.

The circus has four permanent shows up and running on the strip. The first was "Mystere." It was so successful, packing them in two shows a night, they opened a second, "O." Call it Cirque in water. Then a third, the R-rated "Zumanity." And now a fourth, "Ka," in which not only the performers fly, but so does the stage.

By Warren Lustig/Rosalyn Menon